Not to tick off Mom, but have you applied at any SA's? Mom and Dad have your best interest in mind; however, you have to live with all the "WHAT IF"'s long after you're from under their roof. I went to school/career path after high school to keep Mom happy. Was very, very good at it but found it much more fun when I was not forced to do it. It lost all joy quick. I quit a full ride schlorship and went into what made me happy, working as a temp employee first to see if I liked it, then hit school HARD with a vengence. 25 years after graduation, I still enjoy my career today and have seen/been/done more things than most folks will ever see/be/do, all on my favorate Uncle's dime. Very few "WHAT IF"'s around here.
That's why I'm happy for my son and his acceptance @ USCGA; however, if he wanted to go into law enforcement, commercial logging, carpet laying, plumbing or whatever, as long as he's happy, as long as he feels he's done his best, making the living he wants and being a productive member of society, I'm happy as well.
Just make sure you have no regrets and no "WHAT IF"'s when you're old and gray, not that I'm old nor gray, I'll have you know.
My husband and I are WP grads and throughout the entire process this year my son has been asked and questioned over and over whether it was HIS decision to go to a SA or if he was being pushed into it by us. Honestly, until he went to SS, even I wasn't totally sure. But he came home from those 3 weeks (did 3 different ones) insisting those were the best weeks of his life and he 100 percent wanted this. I still worry about him getting through the hard times ahead (yes, I'm a mom! 
)and agree that if you don't really, really want it, it's far better to realize that now.
